Recommended

The People WithoutMetrist

Making up his second solo EP of this year, Metrist’s Resin released ‘The People Without’ cements 2014 as an important year for the Cambridge based producer, following on the heels of his Fifth Wall EP, ‘Doorman In Formant’. The same stark, burbling tonal palette is put into play here; fractured drums clattering across groaning, mutant soundscapes. ‘Letch’ is a strong example; dial-up bleeps & surging radio static slowly gather momentum behind nosediving drones.

Where the melodies felt constrained by Metrist’s stunted rhythms through the Fifth Wall EP, here they are thrust into the foreground, despite the dousing of fuzz & distortion which envelope them. The effect gives the EP the aesthetic of a low-budget ’90s sci-fi flick, ‘Symphony For The Palpatation’ feeling particularly filmic with its warbling crescendo’s and solemn, marching drums.

The style is not dissimilar to that of Perc’s relatively recent The Power And The Glory LP; the barrage of thunderous metallic drums which run through ‘Cowlick’ case in point. Here melodic components at first appear non-existent as Metrist’s dense percussion clouds the track, yet as it develops warped, discordant riffs are slowly eased out of the samples. ‘Stanza For The Weak’ plays on a similar theme, a rollicking kick pattern thudding into place behind Neubauten style powerhouse drums and the ever familiar whine of steeply inclined drones.

Their diversity has often has often been the most attention grabbing feature of Metrist’s prior releases. The strength of ‘The People Without’ however, instead comes from the way it lays out and maintains a single theme consistently. Somewhere in the mid-ground between these two approaches there’s a fantastic album waiting to happen.